Adrenaline
by Plasma Snow
Summary: Based on the Whumptober prompt 'Adrenaline'. October 13th (My birthday)- Adrenaline. Astrid wakes from a stress-induced-nightmare about her friends dying on the field of battle. Deciding she needs to convince her brain that he's okay, she heads to Hiccup's hut and learns that he's been facing the same problem ever since Johan's betrayal. Can they help each other heal?


October 13th-Adrenaline

Fire flew everywhere as the battle waged. Astrid rushed at a hunter, disarming him. He hit her left side with the butt of his spare sword, a loud crack sounding, though the adrenaline was surging almost painfully, and Astrid could not notice the pain.

She ran him through, ax slicing his heart. She turned, adrenaline pumping, heart racing, as her left foot collided with the crotch of another man behind her. He fell to his knees and she kicked him again in the head knocking him unconscious.

Two men approached from behind, Stormfly squawked to warn her. Astrid was too late. One man grabbed her, the other took her ax. The one holding her grabbed her throat, the other one grabbed her beloved.

Hiccup had been knocked off of his dragon. He had been tied up, a piece of rope around his neck, looping over the top of his head, and coming under his ears so it wrapped around his face, the rope hurting his lips as one piece of it gagged him. Astrid panicked. It was like he was a muzzled dragon, and his prosthetic was gone as well. Stormfly was suddenly shot with a dragon root arrow, falling to the ground with a loud thud. She went limp the second her head hit a large rock.

"No!" Astrid practically screamed. Tears ran down Hiccup's face as he stared at her. Suddenly she saw why he was crying. Toothless was laying feet away, blood gushing from his neck.

Astrid started crying too when her betrothed was stabbed in the side, a sickening sound being heard as the blade twisted, piercing between his ribs and tearing his left lung. He screamed into the gag, fell limp the hunter's hold, and stopped breathing.

It was all too much. Astrid was so scared. She feared little, but right now she was terrified. Afraid, broken, grieving, and angry. He heart was beating even faster, so fast she thought it was going to give out.

When the other riders were shot down with catapults, falling into a large fire below, she wished she _would _die.

Astrid gave out a blood curdling scream when the ground suddenly collapsed and she fell into an underground cave below. She fell into clear water, no more hunters or fire surrounding her. She was all alone, tears falling down her face like the crystal colored water droplets coming from the stalactites in the roof.

"Let me die." Astrid whimpered, arms wrapped around herself. She didn't know why she didn't feel pain in her ribs. Perhaps it was just the adrenaline. It wasn't like she was immune to pain.

"Let me die." Astrid whispered it this time, falling onto her side. She wanted the waters below to consume her, freeze her in ice, encase her body and keep her hidden from the world forever. She was pale and the water was rising. She didn't know why. It wasn't raining.

A sob came from her throat as Astrid brought a hand up to the left side of her head. When she pulled it away she realized she had a head injury. For reasons unknown though...the blood was _white. _This was odd. This wasn't right. Everything wasn't happening the way it was supposed to. It was like she was in some alternative world.

Suddenly, a whispering death with a Cavern Crasher on its back burst through the wall. Astrid screamed when it lunged at her, bursting into flames, completely unexpected and catching her off guard.

"Help!" Astrid instinctively wailed.

Then...

She woke up.

* * *

"Help!" Astrid screamed as she set up in bed. She was shaking uncontrollably and sweat was pouring down her forehead. Tears that would not fall were in her eyes and her heart was racing. The adrenaline induced by fear surged, making her head hurt so bad she thought she might feint.

Stormfly woke up immediately at hearing her rider's distress call. She ran to Astrid's side and nudged her comfortingly. Astrid smiled at her Nadder, scratching her chin and letting a couple of tears fall.

"I'm okay girl. I think the stress the war with Johan is causing is just making me have a few nightmares. I'll be fine in the morning."

Astrid looked at her front door as an idea came to her mind. Though she knew it was only a dream, she still had to go check on something.

"I'll be right back girl. I'm going to go see someone. Make sure he's okay."

Stormfly cocked her head to the side, purring when she was scratched behind the ear. She watched Astrid leave with her ax on her back before going to sleep.

Her rider would be okay on her own. She was just going to see her mate.

* * *

Hiccup was woken from his sleep when he heard a knock at his door. Making quick work of putting on his prosthetic and red tunic, he got off of the bed and approached the entrance to his hut cautiously.

"Who is it?" Hiccup had to make sure this wasn't some hunter sneaking up on him. He'd been having nightmare after nightmare of Johan doing numerous things to him and his team. Tonight was no different, and though he was grateful he was pulled from yet another bad dream, he was still on edge and overly-alert.

"Astrid."

Hiccup smiled brightly at hearing her at his hut, then frowned in worry when he noted the hunt of sadness and brokenness in her voice.

Maybe she was having as bad of nights as he was.

Hiccup made quick work of opening the door, greeted Astrid inside with an arm around her shoulders. His betrothed look afraid, self conscious, and scared. He rarely saw her like this, hadn't since she'd been blinded by lightning a few months back. Her right arm was holding her left, her eyes downcast and bangs covering one of them rather than being pushed behind her left ear. She wasn't wearing shoulder pads either, though did have her ax on her back.

"Having a tough night?" Hiccup asked as he sat Astrid on his bed. He stood to get her a spare blanket she could wrap around herself and a glass of water. Toothless was sleeping nearby, ear spines up to show he was listening in case his rider needed anything. He'd been 'secretly' awake since he'd heard a knock on the door.

"How did you know?" Astrid asked in a soft voice, smiling as the blanket was wrapped around her and savoring the cool water on her dry-from-screaming throat. Hiccup chuckled lightly and held her close, his own blanket keeping him warm as they sat on the bed near the fire.

"I think we've all been having a hard time sleeping ever since we found out Johan was betraying us." Hiccup admitted. He'd had conversations with Fishlegs who was having nightmares too. Snotlout wouldn't admit it, but Hiccup could see the dark circles under his eyes. The twins had told everyone they were having nightmares in the clubhouse one day, and had since decided that to fix the problem they were going to compete with each other to see who could go without sleeping the longest. They would go days at a time without sleep, nearly falling off of their dragon when they entered the clubhouse. Hiccup had taken them off of training exercises for the next two week and had forced them to drink hot tea and sleep with their dragon and chicken on a spare bed in the clubhouse for their own health.

Astrid nodded her head, remembering how tired everyone else was in the mornings. They were still sharp in battle, but the betrayal had hit all of them hard. They almost felt like they were grieving a loss and Astrid could swear more fights were happening in the clubhouse during meals because everyone was irritable.

Hiccup had since made most of the training exercise about trust and team work to teach everyone that they worked better together than apart.

"It was the weirdest feeling Hiccup. I've had nightmares before but not like this. I woke up and my body felt like it was on _fire. _My head hurt and I couldn't move anything for a moment. I can't close my eyes without seeing what had happened in the dream."

Astrid couldn't even care that she was being so weak in front of a fellow soldier. She was just so tired.

"It's called adrenaline rush Astrid. In battle it helps...but after nightmares it can be painful at times. They remind you how bad the nightmare was. How hard the emotions hit your body. I personal tend to have phantom-aches after waking up from one because the sudden rush leaves my brain on strike."

Astrid actually laughed at the way her worded it, leaning into her betrothed's hold and wrapping an arm around Hiccup's waist who had his own arm around her shoulders. She pushed him onto the bed, earning a yelp of surprise as he fell on his back. She herself crawled up his body, laying her head on his chest and listening to his heart beat.

"Can I stay here tonight?"

Sleeping with Hiccup had been something she'd done before. They'd fallen asleep together on camping trips many times by accident before they'd even admitted their feelings to each other.

Hiccup nodded his agreement, both hands behind his head as his eyes closed.

"Yeah. I'd like that."


End file.
